


A smile suits you better

by randomity



Category: Free!
Genre: Eraser-kun, I'm kind of hesitant to put him over 'Characters' so I'm putting him here, M/M, and bg characters should have some love too, because them interacting just once is enough to put them on the ship list, doomed ship, hinting more than an actual relationship happening, now if they talk more..
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 12:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2110641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomity/pseuds/randomity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All he asked was to borrow his eraser. What he gave was an eraser and a smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A smile suits you better

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't know who Eraser-kun is, he's the guy sitting in front of Makoto in their class. He was shown on Free! ES episode 2, a little before the opening theme.

 

The person sitting behind me, a guy with a girly name (but I doubt anyone could ever mistake him for a girl due to his towering height),  is Tachibana Makoto.

 

So far, what I’ve known about him is that he’s the captain of the swim club (which he seems really dedicated to), Nanase’s best friend (it’s painfully obvious), and, as far as the swooning girls in our level confess, the most angelic guy they could ever lay their eyes on. Well, Tachibana is definitely a good guy, but aren’t they taking that too far?

 

Enough about him for the moment. Today, we were handed our career path questionnaire. After writing down the basic details — shoot, I messed up on my own name’s kanji — I stared down at the options waving at me.

 

_College. Employment. Other._

 

Not that I’m really indecisive of what I plan to do in the future. After all, I’ve talked to my parents about this and they were willing enough to support me.

 

Steeling myself to finalize my questionnaire, I opted to go back to the earlier mistake on my name. Who even gets their name wrong in senior year?

 

I peered behind to see my classmate so concentrated on his own paper. On his desk was an eraser, the thing I really need the most right now. Mentally apologizing in advanced for disturbing him, I called out to him.

 

"Tachibana, can I borrow your eraser for a sec?"

 

"Sure." Without a room for hesitation, he handed his eraser to me. "Here."

 

Seeing his smile, I couldn’t help but smile back.

 

"Thanks!" Turning to my desk, I could feel my cheeks getting warm. Why though, I’ll never know. Shaking my head a little, I erased my messed up kanji and rewrote my name. Satisfied with the neater paper, my hand clutched on the eraser to give it back to its owner.

 

"Tachiba—" My words trailed off silently as I saw him.

 

He was looking over at Nanase, who was nonchalantly staring off to an unknown spot in the room. Tachibana’s usual smile wasn’t there, only a worried expression.

 

Peeking over his career path questionnaire, he only had his name and section down. Some remnants of eraser were spread on the table. On a closer look, the choices between  _college_ and  _employment_  had faded circles.

 

My gaze returned to him, but he didn’t seem to notice so I turned away, back to the paper on my desk. The words were a little fuzzy from my thoughts.

 

_Tachibana suits better with a smile._

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

I scrambled over my things, the contents of my pencil case splaying messily on the desk. I’m supposed to be doing my homework but..

 

"Is everything alright?" Looking over my back, I saw my friend drawing behind his math notebook, obviously lazing on his own set of homework. Really now.

 

"Yes, Haru, it’s just that," the messy pile of pens and tools laughed at my demise, "I think I forgot something."

 

_Eraser._

 

_I’ll just ask him tomorrow._

 

**Author's Note:**

> I just noticed Eraser-kun after I've seen a post about background characters in Free!. Kyoani really likes putting effort in every character, don't they? Anyway, I found him quite good-looking, noticed that they actually had an interaction, and, BAM this fic came into life. I'm partially sorry since I could mostly support Makoto with anyone.
> 
> Originally posted it over http://eternaldorks.tumblr.com/post/94257170102/ .


End file.
